Day 72, June 28: Mile 968 to 991
Start: Mosquito Hell - Mile 967.8
End: Mosquito Hell cont. - Mile 991.4
Miles: 23.6
Ascent: 4993 | Descent: 6367
I woke up feeling infinitely more rested than the day before and packed up camp quickly. Overall the hiking in this section has been brutal- so many steep, rocky ascents and descents that require full concentration to navigate without slipping on the sandy rocks as well as big, tiring steps up and down that pound on your joints. Today was no different. After a small climb, I started an aggressive descent. And still, it was beautiful- I descended past burbling streams, through damp pine forests and with sweeping vistas of the granite slab mountains in the distance. I passed many beautiful lakes but skirted along quickly as the mosquitos in this section continued to be relentless. I often had my bug net on today.
At one point, I found a nice break spot where the mosquitos weren’t bugging me quite as much. I propped myself up against my backpack against a rock and took another quick seated nap. I ate a few snacks, chugged a liter of water as I was feeling a little dehydrated, and continued on.
After the descent, I started another climb up a hillside that was positively bursting with wildflowers. I stopped to take pictures of many of them and wowed at the diversity. At one point, I chatted with a hiker who was sitting on the side of the trail with a flower identification book in her lap. She told me the names of a few of them (though I forgot them quickly, oops) and learned that her name is Bubbles. Cute!
There were numerous water crossings again today. At one that did not have an easy way to cross and stay dry, I decided to wade across in my shoes. In retrospect, I wish I had taken off my shoes because by the end of the day, I developed blisters (my first since the early desert section) on the bottom side of two of my toes from the damp sandiness of my shoes.
More ups, more downs. More beautiful trees and vistas and flowers and blue skies. I meditated on the cyclical nature of the forest as I passed fallen trees in various states of decay, mixed with the bright green of new growth.
At one wide creek crossing towards the end of the day, I took my shoes off and waded across. The stones in the creek hurt my feet a lot, and I remarked to a hiker nearby (whose name I learned is Half Pint) that with all this walking, I would think my feet would be tougher! Though I guess my shoes do enough to keep my feet tender.
The sun was beginning to set and the mosquitos were out in the fullest of forces again. Even with walking as fast as I could, I was still swatting away ones that landed on my arms. I considered stopping to put on my rain jacket but decided to just deal with it and walk faster. I filtered two liters of water as I walked so that I could pick whatever campsite I wanted soon, without having to worry about being near water.
I found a campsite around 7pm on a soft, sandy bed. My plan of walking until 7 to avoid the worst of the mosquitos while setting up my tent worked sort of, I think. Or maybe I was more efficient than yesterday and the swarms didn’t bother me as much. Either way, I got my tent set up and climbed inside as quickly as possible again. I had a dinner of cold couscous as I was not about to sit outside the safety of my bug net to cook. After dinner I brushed my teeth and hit the hay.